There are many occupations and activities which require the use of protective caps. In particular, such protective caps are a necessity in industrial environments. Protective caps are also used in other activities which might involve the application of force to the head, such as a batting helmet for baseball.
Much effort has been expended in designing protective caps capable of providing protection against vertical blows to the head. A particularly effective protective cap is manufactured by Fibre-Metal Products Co. which includes a rigid shell having an internal headgear and headband. The shell is provided with a suspension system which is designed to help protect the wearer against the impact from a vertical force. This is accomplished by having the shell flex upon an impact to the top of the shell so as to absorb part of the impact force. The smooth ribless surface may further reduce the force transmitted by a glancing blow. The reduced force passes to eight energy distributing points. In this protective cap there are no ribs or surfaces which create weak areas caused by interrupted material flow. The internal suspension also functions to absorb still more of the impact forces. The energy absorbing connections distribute the forces over a greater area of the head, thus reducing concentrations at any one point. Remaining impact forces, are passed to the body's natural shock absorbers.
While the above noted protective cap has proven to be very successful in providing protection against vertical impact forces, it would be desirable to provide a protective cap with some means to also help protect against laterally applied impact forces.